My Brothers
by RATNMR7
Summary: A collection of four one-shots featuring our favorite heroes-in-a-half-shell and my OC, Terentia. Each story will focus on one brother at a time, with their sister. Open to suggestions, either in the reviews and/or PMs.


**Author's Note: Hey, I'm back! Anyone who read my last Author's Note for my story, "Singing Lessons," will most likely remember me mentioning this fic. Personally, I would've posted this one-shot yesterday, but I couldn't, so I have to take what I can get. Believe me, once you read this, you'll see why.**

 **Anyway, in this story, Tia is nine and the turtles are thirteen. And, this is my Raph/OC centric story. Now then, let's get readin'!**

 **To Protect Me, Even If I Don't Always Remember**

 **6:30 am**

Terentia sluggishly sat up, rubbing the drowsiness from her eyes. Another day had begun in the Lair.

She stood up from the air mattress that served as her bed, grabbed her white mask that was tied to her favorite teddy bear Mr. Snuggle-Button, and stalked over to the bathroom. As she did, Tia subconsciously turned her head towards the two bunkbeds on the other side of the room. In those bunks, were her four older brothers.

Or at least three of them. Tia smiled tiredly. _Leo. Always bright and early._

The oldest of her brothers, Leonardo, or Leo to his siblings, was always awake before any of them, to get some early training done. That's how he was; so devoted to ninjisto.

Tia made it to the bathroom and opened the door. As per usual, the cramped bathroom was littered with dirty and even clean towels, along with other things. The young kunoichi shook her head at the state of this room. Many times she had attempted to clean this room and failed. Then again, a family of six mutants sharing one bathroom does get really messy quickly.

Stepping over said objects, Tia made her way over to the sink. Tossing a stray towel into the hamper, Tia pulled out her step stool. Since she was still too short to see her reflection in the mirror, her third oldest brother, Donatello, or Don for short, craved her a stool. For as long as she could remember, Don was the smartest turtle she knew; capable of inventing and repairing anything around him.

 **6:40 am**

Once Tia had finished brushing through her hair, she wrapped it into a ponytail and tied her mask over her eyes. Satisfied with her job, Tia stepped off the stool and headed towards the door. Only when she got to the doorway she felt something stink to her foot. Whatever it was, it was creeping in-between her two toes. Looking down, Tia looked down and saw something green and slimy hidden underneath two towels. She knew what this was and why it was here. She and the youngest of her brothers, Michelangelo, better known as Mikey, had set this up the night before as a prank for a certain turtle.

How could she have been so careless? Never mind that, how was she going to get out of this? Mikey spent two days making this puny extra stinky and slimy.

Tia tried to lift her foot and wipe it off on another towel. But, she couldn't lift it. Tia growled. Once she got out of this, she would kill Mikey.

She tried again, harder this time. That only caused her to lose her balance. As she fell, she yelp in shock and landed stomach first.

"Oof!" she exclaimed when she made contact with the floor. After the landing, Tia couldn't help but feel like she was being watched. Slowly, Tia turned her head to her left. All of her brothers(even Leo) were staring at her, their faces were a mixture of shock and worry. Especially Mikey, who already knew what happened.

After a good thirty seconds of silence, Tia timidly smiled and said sheepishly, "Morning, guys."

Mikey, Leo, and Donnie ran up to their sister to help her up. Normally, Tia would insist she was fine and get up without most help, but this wasn't the case this time. She knew she needed help.

Leo went to Tia's left while Mikey came around to her right side and Donnie carefully made his way into the bathroom. The purple wearing turtle uncovered the two towels, took one look at the puny and turned his gaze at the two youngest, his face made it seem like he was saying:

 _"_ _Really?"_ After Leo saw his younger brother's face, he looked back, then gave them the same face, only it seemed to say instead:

 _"_ _You two have a lot of explaining to do."_ All Mikey could was smiled apologetically, until Tia whacked him upside the head.

"Ow! What was that for?" He demanded.

"You just _had_ to make it like glue, didn't you?" Tia countered angrily.

"If ya ask me, you had it coming." The four turtles turned their attention to their lone brother, Raphael, who was leading against one of the bunkbeds with his arms crossed.

"And what's that suppose to mean?" Tia asked calmly, yet her voice dripped with anger. For what reason, Raph always seemed to know how to get under Tia's skin. Even those she had a better handle on her fury than her red wearing brother, fights between them almost never ended well.

Let's just say, the other turtles, even Master Splinter, had to break them up a few times.

"What I mean is-"

"Guys!" Leo interrupted, knowing there this was going, "enough! Donnie, get Tia out of there."

"On it," Don said, picking up a stray towel.

Leo turned his gaze to his sister, "And when he's done, both you and Mikey are cleaning up that mess."

"Yessir," Tia replied downheartedly. And that's why the turtles never made or played with silly puny ever again.

 **I**

 **7:25 am**

After the long and painful process of cleaning up the silly puny(and some breakfast of course), the five turtles stood in line as Master Splinter lectured them on their next lesson.

"A true warrior must find a balance in mind and in strength. Not just strength in the ninja's weapon, but in his body. Today, we will practice on our strength. Leonardo, Michelangelo, you will be one pair. Raphael and Terentia, so will you."

Upon hearing who her opponent was, Tia groaned. She knew this wasn't going to end. Physically, Raph would squish her if he wanted too. But, she would endure it for her sensi.

Besides, Mikey had taught her a few tricks on how to deal with Raph in battle.

As Donnie waited, the others got into position. Leo and Mikey bowed to each other, while Tia and Raph the same. They got into fighting poses and the training began.

The brother and sister circled one another, waiting for the other to strike. Finally, Raph charged forward, only for Tia side step out of his path, and trip him with a spin kick. This caused the red turtle to fall face first. Tia tried not to laugh at him, but couldn't hold back a snicker. Raph heard it and growled. He stood up and started throwing punches, which she dodged. Being short had it's advantages.

"Hold still!" Raph grunted with each punch. But, this didn't prepare him for what happened next. When he went to punch her again, instead of dodging, Tia grabbed his wrist and with all of her strength, flung him over her shoulder, landing on his shell.

He lost?! How could he lose to his baby sister? The endless teasing to follow after this.

He looked up to see Tia, looking down with a cocky smile on her face.

"Better luck next time, bro," Tia said before walking away to get Donnie.

Something inside Raph had started burning, and that comment and smile only made it grow. He sat up and watched his sister walk towards Donnie and Mikey(who had lost to Leo). Time to teach her a lesson.

Before she time to react, Raph tackled her, pin her to the floor, grabbed her right arm and started twisting it. Being small also had it's disadvantages.

"OW! Get off of me, Raph! Get off!" Tia shouted. She could hear her brothers and father hurrying towards them, but Tia decided matters into her own hands at the moment. Using her free arm, Tia elbow Raph in the gut. While it didn't really hurt, it did distract him so Tia could squeeze herself free. She stood up again, but turned back around to face her second oldest brother.

Still angry about what he also did and his comment earlier, the kunoichi delivered a punch to Raph's face.

"What was that for, you jerk?!" Tia yelled. "You could've broken my arm!" Suddenly, something hit Tia on the top of her head. "Ow!" She looked up to see Master Splinter with a not-so-happy expression on his face.

"Terentia, a true ninja does not kick his opponent when he is down. And you," He turned his attention to Raph, who had stood up with his right cheek swelling up a bit; then Splinter whacked his son with his cane then continued, "a true ninja does not attack his opponent after he is defeated. Now, I want you both in your room and I do not want to come out you have both apologized." The two siblings groaned but walked away, shoving each other along the way.

Some days, Tia really hated Raph. And today was one of those days.

 **I**

 **8:30 am**

A hour and four minutes had passed and neither had moved from their spot. Tia sat on her bed, reading one of her favorite books, "Treasure Island," while Raph was practicing on a punching bag. The pair hadn't said a word or even looked at each other since they were punished.

The sound of the TV could be heard from the living room, the news to be specific. Something about a plane, Tia wasn't paying much attention anyway.

That's when it happened.

Tia had just finished her book and got to put it away, when suddenly, the whole ground shook accompanied by a loud noise.

 ** _CRASH!_**

The rumbling from that quake made Tia trip. She landed on her hands and knees, but quickly recovered in a kneeling position.

Then, she saw it. She saw the TV screen. On the news, it showed one of the buildings up in smoke, the reminisces of a plane sticking out. That's what she felt! It wasn't an earthquake, it was the impact from the plane crash. All on live television.

And even those she could see them from behind, she could tell her brothers were scared.

So was she.

So scared in fact, that she didn't notice Raph run up and ask, "Hey, are you okay, sis? What's goin' on? Sis? Sis!" He shook her shoulder which snapped her out of her daze.

"Huh?" She asked.

"I asked if you were okay. And what the shell's goin' on?" Tia took notice of her brother's tone of voice. It was full of worry, concern, and even . . .fear. Not just fear of what had happened, but fear for her. Fear for all of them.

That alone made her speechless. So, instead, she point to the TV.

She could barely hear him mutter, "Holy shell." Suddenly, Tia felt herself getting pulled. Into Raph's arms? Huh?

Then a second plane hit the same building, creating another quake, much harder than the last one. A small shriek escaped Tia's mouth, which caused Raph's grip tighter. But not in the crushing way. Through the noise, she could exclaims from the rest of her family in the other room, and soft shushes from Raphael.

"It's ok," he said surprisingly gently while slowly rubbing her shell. "I'm right here, don't worry." She could hear the uncertainty in his voice, but it was masked very well by the concern and affection in it. At that moment, she remembered why Raph was so hard on her all the time. He wanted to protect her. And that's what he was doing now. Slowly, Tia wrapped her arms around her big brother. Sometime later, she heard the sound of footsteps coming towards them. Who's it was she couldn't tell because her face was buried in Raph's shoulder. Then, she felt Raph nod his head, and the footsteps left again.

 **I**

The amount of time that passed afterwards was unknown. It seemed like forever that they just held on to each other, even after the shakes stopped.

But eventually, Raph had let go of Tia and said, "Okay, I think we're good." He stood up and offered her a hand. She politely took it.

"Who was that?" She asked.

"Huh?"

"Who came in, then walked out during the um. . .crashes?"

"Oh. It was just Splinta, checkin' on us."

"Oh." Having thought it over during that time, Tia spoke up quietly, "Um Raph. . .Sorry about punching you in the face earlier."

"Ah, no big deal. Well uh. . .I uh, might've gone too far as well. So. . .if you can, then uh-"

"Apology excepted. Truce?" Tia held out her hand.

Then, Raph flashed a very small smile and shook her hand. "Truce. Now, let's get out of here, Shorty."

Tia chuckled, "Who are you calling 'shorty,' Hothead?" Raph playfully growled and wrapped his sister in a headlock, then proceeding to give her a noogie. Tia managed to get out of his grip and raced to the living room with Raph not too far behind.

After that day, things were different between the two of them. Sure, they still fought, but they were never as intense as they use to be.

Neither one of them spoke about that day, yet neither of them forgot about it.

 **Author's Note: This story is dedicated to the families of the victims of 9/11.**

 **Now do you see why I wanted to post this yesterday? I hope I did well for my first one-shot. If I made any mistakes on the timeline of the 9/11 attacks(mostly I did), keep in mind that I was very young when this happened, so I don't remember how much time had passed between attacks. If anyone could politely correct my mistakes, I would be more than happy to go back and edit this.**

 **As for my next story, I'm still not sure. I'm still open to suggestions, so anyone is free to give ideas. Until then, I'll be continuing** ** _Singing Lessons_** **.**

 **I hope everyone had a great summer vacation and to most everyone, a good start to your school. Bye!**


End file.
